Geography

The third-largest island in the Mediterranean
(one and one-half times the size of Delaware), Cyprus lies off the
southern coast of Turkey and the western shore of Syria. The highest peak
is Mount Olympus at 6,406 ft (1,953 m).

Government

Republic. Mediation efforts by the UN seek to
reunify the Greek and Turkish areas of the island under one federated
system of government.

History

Cyprus was the site of early Phoenician and
Greek colonies. For centuries its rule passed through many hands. It fell
to the Turks in 1571, and a large Turkish colony settled on the
island.

In World War I, at the outbreak of hostilities
with Turkey, Britain annexed the island. It was declared a Crown colony in
1925. The Greek population, which regarded Greece as its mother country,
sought self-determination and union
(enosis)
with Greece. In 1955,
a guerrilla war against British rule was launched by the National
Organization of Cypriot Combatants (EOKA). In 1958, Greek Cypriot
nationalist leader Archbishop Makarios began calling for Cypriot
independence rather than union with Greece. During this period, Turkish
Cypriots began demanding that the island be partitioned between the Greek
and Turkish populations.

Cyprus became an independent nation on Aug. 16,
1960, after Greek and Turkish Cypriots agreed on a constitution, which
excluded both the possibility of partition as well as of union with
Greece. Makarios became the country's first president.

Fighting between Greek and Turkish Cypriots
flared up in the early 1960s, and a UN peacekeeping force was sent to the
island in 1965. On July 15, 1974, Archbishop Makarios was overthrown in a
military coup led by the Cypriot National Guard. On July 20, Turkey
invaded Cyprus, asserting its right to protect the Turkish Cypriot
minority. Turkey gained control of 30% of northern Cyprus and displaced
some 180,000 Greek Cypriots. A UN-sponsored cease-fire was established on
July 22, and Turkish troops were permitted to remain in the north. In Dec.
1974, Makarios again assumed the presidency. The following year, the
island was partitioned into Greek and Turkish territories separated by a
UN-occupied buffer zone.

Turkish Cypriots proclaimed a separate state
under Rauf Denktash in the northern part of the island on Nov. 15, 1983,
naming it the “Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus.” The UN
Security Council, in its Resolution 541 of Nov. 18, 1983, declared this
action illegal and called for withdrawal. No country except Turkey has
recognized this entity.

In 1988, George Vassiliou, a conservative and
critic of UN proposals to reunify Cyprus, became president. The purchase
of missiles capable of reaching the Turkish coast evoked threats of
retaliation from Turkey in 1997, and Cyprus's plans to deploy more
missiles in Aug. 1999 again raised Turkey's ire.